Oshieru Part I
Entry 1 Alright so this a story about characters I already have fully developed but who haven't had their story fully fleshed out yet. I'm probably going to redo their histories; taking things I like from them but otherwise adding on. But I probably should go over characters and how I'm going to format this thing first huh... Alright, let's start off with format. So I'm writing this thing through parts, and then entries. I break it into parts after I feel the article is too long. Entries are just each post I make (not including the occassional spelling/grammar edits I might do). Generally each post will have a signature at the bottom, and at the top Entry number here. Important Term: Whenever you see the above, it's because I'm explaining a key idea or what not. Expect quite a few of these. Warning: Self-explanatory right? This is when I'm telling you to avoid doing something. I'll explain why of course. A Word to the Wise: Just some advice that I'll throw out there from time to time when I feel like it. All of this is subject to change of course. I'll get to characters and what not when I have time later. --Takeshi (Talk here) 22:24, July 3, 2011 (UTC) Entry 2 Alright, I guess it's time to go over the characters. First off we have Ryuzaki, my male lead. When I was designing him, I gave him some central ideas of freedom and curiousity. A Word to the Wise: If you're having trouble coming up with a character, a central idea that you can then branch from is always a good way to go about it. Because of these ideas, I was able to then branch out and make the personality. Important Term: Personality is a collection of qualities a character possesses. When you're designing a personality, things need to make sense, and more often than not their background plays a key role in the development of this personality. What does this mean? Well, things need to add up when you read a history and a personality. A person will not generally be into angst if they had a great childhood for example. Important Term: Angst is a feeling of dread, anxiety, or despair. When you refer to a character as having angst, it generally means they're often in a very dark mood. Warning: Angst can easily be executed improperly. Sure, if a loved one dies, a character might very well mope for a while, but eventually they need to get over it. An emotionally strong person especially cannot fall into it for extremely long. When you over do it, you can annoy readers by how much moping your character is doing, especially when it goes against the personality. It's definitely worst when they're in angst mode years later. If angst comes from their past, they better have an EXTREMELY good reason not to have at least kept going over all the years. Anyways, Ryuzaki is meant to be a mass of contradictions as he changes from mood to mood. His emotions often can flip very easily but though he is calm and logical and often looks at the world dispassionately, as if he wasn't a part of it, he also displays a large amount of passion towards the things he cares about. Exposed to many forms of a art, he has developed a very overactive imagination that, though at times revealing himself to be slightly bombastic, like the rest of him, he generally keeps it in check. He can appear distant from those who don't know him because he dislikes people knowing his feelings; partially because he doesn't really want to fully know himself. He also has a lazy side to him when he knows extreme things aren't on the line, and he will rarely hold grudges past a day. People in real life are often very complex; your characters should be too, in believable ways. Ryuzaki is very independent because he often felt held back in his childhood, and his emotional shifts come from learning to adapt to the situations quickly as his mind works extremely quickly and often times on reflex. Ryuzaki falls under a smart but lazy category, because his teachers would often give him a lot of tedious work. Find reasons for a character's personality to be as they are. --Takeshi (Talk here) 01:00, July 4, 2011 (UTC) Entry 3 Moving on, let's look at appearance. Generally speaking, and appearance can help reflect the personality of a character apparel-wise. If you're going for a specific heritage you might consider the beliefs they grow up with as well. Hair is also something to consider. How do they keep their hair? Do they keep it short or long, thin or thick, etc. Ryuzaki has a very simple view of clothing. Generally he puts comfort over style, going for simple clothing outfits. This isn't just for the comfort but also for the fact that extravagent stuff generally is an issue when try to move as easily as possible; in a fight for example. You can have apparel be even more revealing of a character's personality, but most importantly, don't make them wear something they wouldn't. Extra short post... sorry I'm tired tired right now. Hopefully will post something more soon. --Takeshi (Talk here) 17:43, July 4, 2011 (UTC) Entry 4 Ability-wise, since the story starts from the beginning, they won't have anything spiritual to begin with. So let's go over the more physical characteristics that a normal human would have. Strength, speed, agility, endurance, intelligence, memory, persuasive power, etc. are all things to consider when making a character. Just don't go and make things overpowered. Important Term: Godmodded is a word you don't generally want directed at your work, especially if it's for good reason. The issue is you have a very fine line to consider when crafting a character to keep it from crossing into this territory. Godmodding is more or less overpowering something and blurring the lines of what is reasonable and what isn't. There's a difference between better and totally ridiculous, and many people don't see that because of the emotional and/or intellectual investment they make in their characters. If it was possible it might have been better with this wiki to have had everyone start with characters that hadn't really developed their powers. Then everyone could have watched the development as they grew strong and we could help better steer away from the terrible fate of becoming overpowered. And the thing is, it's a lot easier to considering something overpowered when you haven't seen them develop; haven't seen them becoming this powerful entity that you claim they are in your article. Since I've entered this territory already might as well stick with it and maybe explain some more. Let's make an example of godmodding first. Imagine a Shinigami, who becomes a Vizard, unlocks an entire second tier of powers for a Vizard, past their mask and even the releases some people on this site have made over the years. It puts them on a tier above nearly everyone in terms of power. And let's not stop there, let's give them the ability to completely control reason, and generate and shoot Kōtotsu at people at will. To top it off, this character has an IQ above anyone else; he's a genius who borders on omniscient, sometimes, and usually, reaching that point. He unlocked a release above bankai twice, and has strength to defeat anyone with a mere punch. His very presense could destroy the world if he didn't have such control over it. ... That's a severe case mind you, most people aren't that bad. But seriously, your character does not need to be the strongest around. Be more focused on how interesting your character is. If your character is the strongest and has no weaknesses, what conflict could come that would be interesting? There are certain plots that can live with a godmodded character, but generally only if they are the villain, and for it to work they will generally need a weakness to be exploited to bring them closer to the heroes level. That's what flaws are for in personality as well as powers. An example of a personality flaw that leads to a very strong characters death can be found in the book The Cystal Shard. The main antagonist of the book has powers that could literally bring an entire civilization to their knees, but he ends up dying as he, standing on the top of the mountain and using his power (which gives off heat because it draws power from the sun) he proudly demonstrates his power to the point he causes an avalanche that kills him. Pride, a flaw that is also part of the deadly sins, killed the antagonist. But seriously, godmodding generally is not taken kindly on a fanfiction or fanon site. --Takeshi (Talk here) 21:04, July 8, 2011 (UTC)